Mets' Chris Young is not a hard thrower but knows velocity can be deceiving

Joy R. Absalon-US PRESSWIREChris Young may not throw hard but he knows that's not all pitching is about.

NEW YORK — The fallacy of velocity, a problem Mets starter Chris Young has spent more than a decade pondering, boils down to logic. Or a lack thereof, Young explained the other day. The combination of his 6-10 frame and a low-heat, mid-80s fastball invites a common question: “Why don’t you throw harder?” He shrugs it off.

“Velocity is just how fast the ball leaves your hand,” Young said. “What they should be looking at is the time it takes from when it leaves to your hand to when the catcher catches it, or the batter hits it.” He added, “Certainly, velocity’s great and it helps. But there are other things that are just as important, such as deception, movement, location.”

When Young was still in his 20s, before arm injuries and aging rendered a 90-mph fastball unattainable, he teamed in the San Diego rotation with Greg Maddux. Maddux, the four-time Cy Young Award winner, had already turned 40 and his fastball velocity had dipped into the low 80s. He helped tutor his tall teammate about the intricacies of their craft, the importance of reading swings, the artistry of pitch sequences.

“It was a great example,” Young said. “If you know how to pitch, stuff is overrated.”

Young’s current club can only hope to be the beneficiary of those lessons. The Mets (32-29) limped into Tampa, Fla. after a dispiriting Subway Series sweep by the Yankees. They have lost seven of their last eight games, and now face the American League East division leader.

Their offense sputters to life at random. The defense has cost several runs in the past week. The bullpen contains mostly unreliable options.

The club’s best hope for a revival lies with its rotation. On the first night of the series, the Mets turn to Young (0-0, 3.60 ERA), a starter with a surgically repaired right shoulder and a limited pitch count. He is 13 months removed from anterior capsule surgery, still battling through the occasional patches of fatigue. In his return to the mound, on Tuesday against the Nationals, Young lasted five innings, gave up six hits and three runs (one unearned). To pitching coach Dan Warthen, his mechanics appeared cleaner than the previous season, when Young made four starts as a Met before his capsule tore.

“I thought his arm action was freer,” Warthen said. “I thought that there was less labor to throw the baseball. I just think that we’re still looking for arm strength.”

His average fastball that night was 83.83 mph, according to Pitch F/X data. He topped out at 85.9 mph. He recorded just one swing and miss with the fastball. Warthen hopes that as the season progress, Young can hold 85-86 mph during an entire outing.

Even with Young’s arsenal diminished, the Nationals teetered off balance for the most part. At one point, Mets third base coach Tim Teufel was chatting with Nationals third baseman Ryan Zimmerman.

“What is it about this guy?” Teufel asked.

“He’s throwing 84,” Zimmerman said. “But it looks like it’s 95.”

Zimmerman was only slightly exaggerating. Glenn Fleisig, the research director at the American Sports Medicine Institute in Birmingham, Ala., told The Star-Ledger last year that the average elite pitcher’s stride is 82 percent of his height. When Young’s long legs lunge toward the plate, Fleisig said, “there is a decreased time for the batter to react,” he lands about eight inches closer to the plate than a 6-0 pitcher.

Catcher Josh Thole added, “He just hides the ball for so long.”

For Young, the day after his start was “a whirlwind,” he said. The next morning, his wife Liz gave birth to their third child, a son they named Grant, at a Virginia hospital. Young spent two days on paternity leave, then rejoined the club and resumed his task of rebuilding arm strength.

“I expect that in another start or two, (my shoulder’s) going to acclimate to the workload, the adrenaline, the intensity, the things you can’t simulate in the minor leagues,” Young said. “And from there, I just expect it to get stronger.”